Peter Diamandis: Keep Your Eye on Virtual Reality in 2015 | Big Think.

Every year I spend time thinking about what are the technologies going from deceptive to disruptive this year that today's exponential leaders need to be thinking about actually beginning to work with. For this coming year, for the next few years, my view is that virtual reality is part of that.

It's gotten different terms; there are different elements of it: Virtual World, virtual reality, augmented reality. Really, the kickoff was the purchase of Oculus Rift by Facebook for a couple of billion dollars. But in addition to that, what we've seen is a number of technologies coming together: infinite computing, very cheap high-resolution cameras, machine learning capabilities, low latency, high bandwidth networks. All of these things are coming together to reinvent the virtual world experience.

I'll give you one example of the virtual world that I think is important today. When I go to a mall to buy things, it's a disastrous experience. Right? You spend half an hour getting to the mall, you park, you go, you're trying to find a particular jacket or outfit, whatever it might be. You look, you can't find what you're looking for, you take a few things to the dressing room, you try it on, it doesn't fit. You know, you spend hours; it's a wasted experience, and you walk away frustrated.

In the future, what I project happening is that at home, you will have yourself 3D scanned, down to the millimeter, where it's a private file, but my body shape exactly is in a file. I then enter into a virtual world, and I have an AI there that is my shopping advisor. It says, "Peter, what are you looking for?" I'm saying, "You know, I'm going to this amazing Hollywood party tomorrow night, and I'm looking for something that's stylish. I want to wear black."

And all of a sudden, in this virtual world, everything I see is in my size, in the colors I want, recommended by this AI. I can say, "You know, I'd love to see a fashion show," and all of a sudden, on a runway are avatars of me wearing all these different outfits walking by. I can say, "I want to see that one and that one," and all of a sudden, I'm looking in a virtual mirror, and I'm wearing that outfit.

I can look around and see what it looks like, and I go, "This is it! I want that!" Boom! It's produced, manufactured to my exact size—probably using 3D printing capabilities or robotic capabilities—that afternoon in the local factory and delivered the next morning. And it fits perfectly.

So it's an experience where when I want something, I know I will get exactly what I'm looking for, fitting for me. So that's the future of the virtual retail store, if you would, and why I think virtual reality is going to do effectively a hundredfold improvement over what the Amazon experiences today.